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Psychophysiology (from Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 , ps?khe, "breath, life, soul"; , physis, "nature, origin"; and , -logia
-logy

-logy is a suffix in English language, found in words originally adapted from Ancient Greek words ending in -????a . The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French language -logie, which was in turn inherited from the Latin language -logia....
) the branch of psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 that is concerned with the physiological
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
 bases of psychological
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 processes. What used to be known as cognitive psychophysiology until the mid 1990's is currently called Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrate underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes and their behavioral manifestations....
.

For example, psychologists are interested in why we may fear spider
Spider

Spiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. In their bodies the usual arthropod segments are fused into two Tagma , the cephalothorax and abdomen, joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel....
s and physiologists may be interested in the input/output system of the amygdala
Amygdala

The are almond-shaped groups of neurons located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotions, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system....
.






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Psychophysiology (from Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 , ps?khe, "breath, life, soul"; , physis, "nature, origin"; and , -logia
-logy

-logy is a suffix in English language, found in words originally adapted from Ancient Greek words ending in -????a . The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French language -logie, which was in turn inherited from the Latin language -logia....
) the branch of psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 that is concerned with the physiological
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
 bases of psychological
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 processes. What used to be known as cognitive psychophysiology until the mid 1990's is currently called Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrate underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes and their behavioral manifestations....
.

For example, psychologists are interested in why we may fear spider
Spider

Spiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. In their bodies the usual arthropod segments are fused into two Tagma , the cephalothorax and abdomen, joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel....
s and physiologists may be interested in the input/output system of the amygdala
Amygdala

The are almond-shaped groups of neurons located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotions, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system....
. A psychophysiologist will attempt to link the two. He might, for example, try to explain arachnophobia
Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia is a specific phobia, an abnormal fear of spider and other arachnids. It is among the most common of all phobias.. The reactions of arachnophobics often seem irrational to others ....
 in terms of impulses coming in and out of the amygdala. However, psychophysiologists almost always study the psychological/physiological link in intact human subjects. While early psychophysiologists almost always examined the impact of psychological states on physiological system responses, since the 1970s, psychophysiologists also study the impact of physiological states and systems on psychological states. It is this perspective of studying the interface of mind and body that makes psychophysiologists most distinct.

Psychophysiology is different from physiological psychology
Physiological psychology

Physiological psychology is a subdivision of biological psychology that studies the neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through direct manipulation of the brains of nonhuman animal subjects in controlled experiments....
 in that psychophysiology looks at the way psychological activities produce physiological responses, while physiological psychology looks at the physiological mechanisms which lead to psychological activity. Historically, most psychophysiologists tended to examine the physiological responses and organ systems innervated by the autonomic nervous system. More recently, psychophysiologists have been equally, or potentially more, interested in the central nervous system, exploring cortical brain potentials such as the many types of event-related potentials (ERPs), brain waves, functional neuroimaging (fMRI), PET, MEG, etc.

A psychophysiologist may look at how exposure to a stressful situation will produce a result in the cardiovascular system such as a change in heart rate (HR), vasodilation/vasoconstriction, myocardial contractility, or stroke volume. A physiological psychologist may look at how one cardiovascular event may influence another cardiovascular or endocrine event, or how activation of one neural brain structure exerts excitatory activity in another neural structure which then induces an inhibitory effect in some other system. Often, physiological psychologists examine the effects that they study in infrahuman subjects using surgical or invasive techniques and processes.

Psychophysiology is closely related to the field of Neuroscience and Social neuroscience
Social neuroscience

Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior, and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior....
, which primarily concerns itself with relationships between psychological events and brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
 responses. Psychophysiology is also related to the medical discipline known as psychosomatics.

While psychophysiology was a discipline off the mainstream of psychological and medical science prior to roughly the 1960 and 1970s, more recently, psychophysiology has found itself positioned at the intersection of psychological and medical science, and its popularity and importance have expanded commensurately with the realization of the inter-relatedness of mind and body.

Commonly used measures

Many measures are part of modern psychophysiology including measures of brain activity such as ERPs, brain waves (electroencephalography, EEG), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), measures of skin conductance (skin conductance response, SCR; galvanic skin response
Galvanic skin response

Galvanic skin response , also known as electrodermal response , psychogalvanic reflex , or skin conductance response , is a method of measuring the electrical resistance of the skin....
, GSR), cardiovascular measures (heart rate
Heart rate

Heart rate is a measure of the number of heart beats per minute . The average resting human heart rate is about 70 bpm for adult males and 75 bpm for adult females....
, HR; beats per minute
Beats per minute

Beats per minute is a unit typically used as either a measure of tempo in music, or a measure of one's heart rate. A rate of 60 bpm means that one beat will occur every second....
, BPM; heart rate variability
Heart rate variability

Heart rate variability is a measure of the beat-to-beat variations in heart rate. It is usually calculated by analyzing a time series of beat-to-beat intervals from the ECG, of beat-to-beat intervals derived from an arterial pressure tracing or of beat-to-beat intervals derived from a pulse wave signal measured by means of a photoplethysmogr...
, HRV; vasomotor activity), muscle activity (electromyography
Electromyography

Electromyography is a technique for evaluating and recording the activation signal of muscles. EMG is performed using an medical instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram....
, EMG), changes in pupil diameter with thought and emotion (pupillometry) and eye movements, recorded via the electro-oculogram (EOG) and direction-of-gaze methods.

Uses of psychophysiology

Psychophysiological measures are often used to study emotion and attention responses in response to stimuli. Loud startle tones, emotionally charged pictures, videos, and tasks are presented and psychophysiological measures are used to examine responses.